Pentecost at Aysgarth Church

A visit to All Saints church at Ripley inspired Doreen Mason to create a magnificent and awe inspiring mobile for Aysgarth church depicting the life-changing message of Pentecost.

“At Ripley Angela Moore and I saw this mobile of angels in their belfry which was absolutely stunning,” said Mrs Mason. When they asked Karen Evans, who created that mobile, if she would mind if they did something similar she actively encouraged them. Mrs Mason and Mrs Moore decided they would like to do something in time for Pentecost and before the vicar, the Rev Sue Whitehouse, retired.

And so Mrs Mason designed a mobile using over 500 white doves and flames. The message alongside the mobile reads: “Pentecost – ‘the fiftieth day’ was a Jewish festival to celebrate the giving of The Law on Mount Sinai. It was at this festival that the Holy Spirit (represented here by doves) descended amid tongues of flame and a rushing wind. This excited everyone and filled the Apostles with new confidence and is often referred to as the ‘Birthday of the Christian Church’.”

Mrs Mason involved many others in creating the mobile. She explained: “Most of the ladies in the congregation and the children at three local schools – at Askrigg, Bainbridge and West Burton – contributed by cutting out doves. And then Paul Markie made us a very, very nice round wooden structure to hand them from. I strung most of them and lots of people helped to put it up. And it was up before Pentecost. And then Colin Bailey lent us the floodlight.

“I am very happy with the result. If I did it again there are certain things I would do different like putting the flames in different places.”

Even so people visiting St Andrew’s do experience that Wow factor on seeing that amazing mobile. Mrs Evans visited with her husband and left a congratulatory note as have some other visitors. And one from a military base in Malta commented: “I love the children’s participating by way of collages, paintings, mobiles etc.”